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Starbucks, following in their increased social media marketing drive, have launched a scheme offering $40 rewards to random customers who check in at one of the chains  using Foursquare. This news is the latest in Starbucks’ recent developments in using social media as a platform for advertising; including being part of the first wave of the ‘Promoted Tweets’ revision to Twitter.

The company has previously experimented with Foursquare integration before, offering a discount scheme to customers achieving the ‘mayor’ status in the game at the coffee giant’s numerous branches in the United States. However, issues were exposed with the last campaign; many staff members of participating stores were unaware of the discounts available, having not heard of the campaign at all. This new promotion forms a part of a large 40th anniversary marketing push for the brand.

Foursquare offers users the chance to play a worldwide ‘game’ by checking in to various stores and places throughout the world. It offers rewards in the form of badges, which often carry corporate sponsorship. Starbucks, in choosing to support Foursquare, instead of the geotagging system of social media giant Facebook, is lending credibility to the up and coming platform. With smartphones made by Apple, RIM and HTC among others now supporting geotagging and GPS applications, this relatively untapped market may see exponential growth in the coming months as users grow.

There are 500 rewards to be given out in total, with participants also earning a ‘Tribute Badge’ in Foursquare for checking in.

Chris Dixon, co-founder of Hunch.com, has posted a blog about what he considers the death of search engine optimization marketing.  This has obviously stirred up some controversy in the marketing sphere.  Top line search engine analysis site Search Engine Land has posted a rebuttal to Dixon’s claims, saying SEO is alive and well.

Getting into the mix as a middle man of sorts, Sarah Tavel posted a middle ground stance on her Adventurista blog.

So which is it?  Is SEO dead, not dead, or only partially dead?

Most of Dixon’s analysis of why he thinks SEO is dead misses a large chunk of how search engine marketing works.  It’s been known for a long time that Google weighs the number of back-links to a site as well as the site’s age (longevity) in its algorithm.   Dixon largely ignores this in his comparison of two hotel finding websites.

Search Engine Land then uses this to refute Dixon’s claim and says that SEO is still likely the strongest way to promote a business.  Given that SEL is all about search (and nothing else), this is to be expected.  They do concede, however, that SEO cannot be the only marketing method if a startup is to succeed.

At this point, Tavel enters with her analysis, drawing up the middle.  She says that SEO is a good strategy, but cannot be the only strategy for a startup.  In her opinion as a venture capitalist, she sees SEO heading down the same path as email marketing, organic results, etc.

It appears that the middle ground approach is correct.  Social marketing is currently the dominant force in most startup strategies.  Eventually, though, that too will be replaced, but the old ways of doing things have a way of sticking around.  Unless the technology itself becomes totally defunct, old marketing strategies like email, blog writing, etc. continue to hang around.

SEO will be the same.